In accordance with their strategy set, Christie's took to federal prosecutors seeking amnesty. Sotheby's pled guilty paying fines of $45 million and later $20 million following a European Commission investigation, equivalent to around 6% of its global turnover. Civil litigation settlements involving both auction houses amounted to $512 million. The greatest loss, however, was implicit: a reputational stain from the enduring tension between art and profit.

A promising rebound in the market follows strong results in Paris this past week, where Yves Klein’s California (IKB 71) auctioned for a record $21 million for the year. It's a monochrome painting.

Klein dubbed the luminous ultramarine International Klein Blue, gaining traction first at Milan's Apollinaire Gallery in 1957. While French law forbids the ownership of colors, Klein was able to patent the formula—PB29 pigment, ethanol, and Rhodopas M, a synthetic resin.  I can appreciate the radical and sublime qualities of his work, the spiritual and sensory transcendence it seeks to evoke, but I’m not completely sold.

A fine artist by training, I’ve found contemporary art’s abstractions sometimes distasteful but over time come to view it as an exercise to appreciate things that don’t come in ways we please. The world doesn’t function on a singular aesthetic code. And really, IKB is pretty iconic: it's founded on a collaboration with chemists, it's a motif of Klein's oeuvre, its cultural buzz shows what comes out of sticking to your own formula... 

Like Klein, I love all things blue. Unlike Klein, I won't be getting an eponymous color anytime soon. If I could, it'd be like #02cce3.

Alfa Romeo's BAT series are concept cars designed by Florentine Franco Scaglione from 1953 to 1955. The futuristic, fluid design is just so pleasing to the eye. In a world of harsh edges, see Scaglione. 

His cars were built for aerodynamic design studies that were avant-garde even for the jet age styling of the 1950s. The first of the series, BAT 5, attains a drag coefficient of 0.23, lower than most production cars today. That’s incredible. The dual nose vents and protruding fins that first caught my attention remind me of a Batmobile from my brother's and my hot wheels collection. BAT 7 improved on these aerodynamic capabilities and ran in SCCA races in Southern California before entering private collections. The three cars were brought together for the first time in 1989 and have stuck together since. 

My favorite part of automotive design is when engineering becomes art.

Nothing made me question the Italian education system more than my Contemporary Art syllabus at Bocconi. The Mushroom at the End of the World was so mind-numbing a read that finally shelving it brought a relief I hope to never feel again. But maybe that’s to say Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing really challenged me.

The premise of Tsing’s mullings lies in matsutake, a species of mycorrhizal mushroom growing in the American Pacific Northwest and prized in Japanese cuisine. Tracing matsutake’s origin story through its movement in global supply chains, Tsing intends for readers to perceive mushroom not as an alienated capitalist asset but rather an active player in the complex entanglement—assemblage—of things. "Assemblage” referring to an open-ended gathering of species founded on "unintentional coordination and interplaying rhythms of life." You get the idea.

In the 1960s, timber companies' unchecked expansionism and logging practices wiped out Oregon's ponderosa and fir populations. The Forest Service’s wildfire prevention further starved the region of critical regenerative cycles. In the anthropocenic landscape, matsutake flourish. It began colonizing the disturbed forests with an emerging pine species and found way into human lives through the wild mushroom trade. 

Matsutake pickers hailed from Southeast Asia. US programs aimed to provide a safe haven for the Mien, Hmong, and Lao, survivors of wars. By their arrival in the late '80s, however, the conservative administration curtailed its social programs, leaving few resources for education, assimilation, and livelihood. The refugees retreated into the Cascade forests where culture and ways of life could be preserved. Tsing fixates on the informal conjoining of pickers and mushrooms as an exemplary post-capitalist assemblage.

Followed by a deep dive into supply chains and the role of matsutake—part gift, part commodity—en route to the Japanese dinner table, Tsing draws on for much more. But she constantly revisits the idea of life's precarity. Assemblages only arise from impromptu interspecies collaboration and contamination. 

I came to appreciate Tsing's inspiration of coexistence in an uncertain future during a long run on the Cerchia dei Navigli. My next thought was why that required becoming a top-decile expert on the economics of rare fungi.

At least it all came into use as I prepared for Prof. Giusti's oral final, drilling every last of Tsing’s philosophical tangents into my head. I've never felt such simultaneous apathy and perturbed fascination... This wasn't even art anymore. Mind you, this wasn't the only text either. Haraway’s conceptions of the Chthulucene or the Fowkes’ miscellany on human exceptionalism were also arduous reads. Let's save it for another day.

My takes on Milan's art museums:

Gallerie d’Italia - A stunning collection of 19th-century Lombard paintings with contemporary works tossed in the mix. Galleries of cathedral scenes indulged me in chiaroscuro study. Good pieces on the Risorgimento, including Albertis’ ll Richiamo dei Cavalli Sbandati.

Fondazione Prada - As a French New Wave enthusiast, stumbling upon Cinema Godard was a quaint surprise. The kitsch duck installation and Höller’s mushrooms are must-sees. Founded by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli in 1993. 

Il Cenacolo - Da Vinci's storied mural is any dilettante's (literal) mecca. Coveted tickets release in three-month batches—I'd advise against dusk bookings because the tempera has kind of faded. Standing on the opposite side of the refectory rather than crowding up close also allows one to better take in the brilliance of Da Vinci's composition.

Museo del Novecento - Three floors of Postwar Italian art, a wrestle between abstraction and classical revival. Italian futurism showcases art's capacity to drive political fervor. Several pieces by Melotti and Marini, too. A well-worth side quest to the usual Duomo visit. 

Fondazione Luigi Rovati - I was impressed by the Hypogeum's extensive collection of Etruscan pottery and metalwork. The space? Very Zaha Hadid-coded. Cool palace restoration with floor-to-ceiling tapestries and curio cabinets of oriental ceramics.

Pinacoteca di Brera - Showing up at 8:30am and saying “Sono uno studente di storia dell'arte di Bocconi”? Doesn't hurt. The collection, originating with the Habsburgs, features work as old as tempera triptychs and illuminated manuscripts. Highlights also include Raphael, Caravaggio, and of course, Hayez. Had I brought sketch materials I'd beeline for an art horse and get some studies in.

Museo delle Culture - Ex-factory housing permanent collection Global Milan, spanning the city's history under shifting rule, trade with Asia, and Italy's colonial empires abroad. Its wide selection of anthropological artifacts reminded me of the Penn Museum. This was perfect for a late night study break.

Triennale - 1930s palazzo located in Parco Sempione. It's Milanese design in all forms: industrial, fashion, furniture, graphic—you name it. Gae Aulenti displays Fiats suspended in time and space. After All strews apocalyptic plastic sculptures with zero explanation. My favorite part was flipping through blueprints and urban development plans in Cuore.

Museo del Risorgimento - Milan, having been the cultural and intellectual center in the reunification movement, tells its history through enfilades of artifacts and artwork. The place belonged to the Morigi family, from Maggiore. I have a bone to pick with the fact that all the labels are placed at like hip-level. Fun fact, this museum is steps away from Giorgio Armani’s palazzo.

Pirelli HangarBicocca - Contemporary art housed in an old tire factory 25-minutes out of the city by M5. The hangar once belonged to the Ansaldo Group, a locomotive manufacturer responsible for much of Lombardy’s railway networks. One word to describe it all: sublime. See: Anselm Kiefer’s Seven Heavenly Palaces featuring 65-ft high towers, Saodat Ismailova’s A Seed Under Out Tongue film about extinction (which was part of Prof. Giusti's syllabus!).

Palazzo Morando - On a side street in Quad d’Oro, the fashion district of Milan. The paintings of Duomo and city gates transport you back in time. Galtrucco, founded in Turin, displayed a variety of haute couture design and textiles.

Galleria d'Arte Moderna - Spanning three floors, the Villa Reale was a sight I regularly jogged past on my runs (plus this was chef's kiss). It was also a residence of Napoleon's for a time. Lombard Romanticist works, lots of portraits and genre paintings, and some international modernists. Finally paid a visit this month but was borderline delirious from a night out and only made it through the permanent exhibition. 

Ambling through museum grounds on a Monday afternoon was the last thing I expected during my stint at The Getty’s investment office (among studying the Yale Model, perusing appraisal and provenance records, and speaking to Michael Burry are you kidding). But that was my summer!

The Getty's West Pavilion galleries are a bear hug from yours truly. My camera roll overflows with close-ups of old masters which I turn to for instruction and inspiration. Rembrandt's musings and Gentileschi's portraits are arresting even in my memory: I recall on a tour with the CIO captivated by Lucretia's commentary on pre-republic Roman politics. W204 etches transient impressionist scenes into minds. Monet and Cézanne challenge me to improve my plein-air hand. The way gestural brushstrokes paradoxically create a complete work show me there’s so much more to achieve than photorealism.